iSi Creative Whip

Drink Outside the Box

Find yourself with too much of a good thing this summer?  Perhaps that giant tuft of basil is turning a little  brown or those five pounds of cherries are developing some spots.  But they’re on sale now and it’s the height of the season!

At iSi, we say, if you can’t cook with it, drink with it!  Beverages nowadays are astounding: you can find every type of flavor, ones with sugars and without, electrolytes, carbonation – you name it, it’s out there. Why not try something on your own?  This summer, we challenge you to drink outside the box.

This summer, try a variation on one of Kathy Casey’s recipes, created by the clever folks at Food52, providing  a delicious use for those fresh cherries and basil.

Cherry and Thai Basil Soda by Food52
Ingredients for 1 pint Whipper
1 Bunch Thai Basil
500 ml cold water, then 800 ml cold water
1/2 pint cherries, sliced and halved
1/4 cup white sugar, to taste

Procedure:

The night before: remove the basil leaves from the stems and wash well.   Discard any brown/wilted leaves.  Add the leaves to the 500mL cold water and muddle/bruise with a wooden spoon or muddler.  Refrigerate overnight.

Once the cherries are rinsed, stemmed, and halved, add to the 800mL water and boil for about 45 minutes.  When the cherries are boiled and have lost most of their color, taste the juice and add sugar, about 1/4 cup, if necessary.  Filter the juice through a strainer; be sure to remove any pulpy bits (a fine sieve or gold coffee filter is best).  You want the juice as clear as possible.  Press out any remaining juice from the cherries.

Once the fruit juice is cool, strain the basil-infused water into the cherry juice.  Pour the juice into your pre-chilled iSi whipper, screw on one to two iSi soda chargers (however carbonated you’d like!) and shake well.  Refrigerate overnight.  Serve immediately and very chilled.

Note: You can use the Gourmet Whip Plus or Creative Whip for the above applications.  You could even blend the juices and add in carbonated water using our iSi Soda Siphon.

Or how about something slightly more adult?   Kathy Casey of The Liquid Kitchen shows you how to make a delicate and light cocktail incorporating lemon, mint and a touch of local honey using our iSi Gourmet Whip PLUS.  A perfect summer porch drink!

Photo by Food52

Whipped Cream 2.0

We love finding a “one size fits all”.  It so rarely happens anymore, but such a thrill when it does!  We like to think of our whipped cream as such.  Its applications are endless: topping off a root beer float or fruit compote, even an after dinner pie and coffee, the list goes on and on.  Some of our personal favorites show off whipped cream as the star: a key component in a strawberry shortcake or even as a filling in donuts, a specialty of ours we showed off at the Housewares show earlier this year.

We’ve made it incredibly easy to make whipped cream yourself at home. Using our iSi Gourmet Whip PLUS you can create any flavor of whipped cream you want.  Plus,  it’s dishwasher safe and we include a variety of decorator tips to satisfy any creative whim.  A bonus?  The cream can stay fresh for up to 10 days with fresh ingredients and storage in the refrigerator AND yields up to five times what you put into the whipper.  Additionally, you can use our iSi Cream Profi Whip PLUS which was practically built to serve whipped cream. Perhaps you’ve seen them in use at your local coffee shop.

The versatility of whipped cream is another reason why we love it so much.  You can make it lowfat if you wish, and you can flavor it about a zillion different ways (sugars, syrups, powders) – which is just how we served our donut holes at the 2012 Home and Housewares Show.  Using our stainless steel injector needles, we were able to add an organic chocolate powder and inject freshly made donuts with homemade whipped creams, right on the spot.  For us, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

Fresh Whipped Cream

Ingredients for 1 Pint Whipper
14 oz. chilled heavy cream (38% butterfat)
2 oz. flavoring syrup

Preparation
Pour heavy cream and syrup into the iSi whipper, screw in 1 iSi cream charger and shake vigorously 4-5 times.

Serving Suggestion
Dispense fresh whipped cream over sliced strawberries or in a shortcake.  You can also use as a filling or a topper.